A degree of common sense is needed from employers in order to maintain health at work during the current heat wave, it has been suggested.

According to a spokesperson from the Institute For Employment Studies (IES), to ensure people are working efficiently and effectively, they need to be comfortable within the bounds of health and safety.

"If the culture of over-smartness is at the expense of efficiency then it is probably not a good idea," he added.

The representative was responding to recent comments by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), which claimed employers should relax office dress codes and cool down overheating offices.

Expanding, the IES spokesperson said that the suggestions from the TUC were really a matter of common sense that was conducive to public safety.

Insurance provider RSA also recently recommended ensuring workplace temperatures do not rise above 25 degrees Celsius as this could cause productivity to decrease and increase the risk of accidents.

Related News:

• Employee launches appeal for statutory maximum temperature at work
• 1.5m working days lost at firms in Wales, denting productivity
• Workers ’spend 22 million hours commuting’
• Health and safety at work ’should be flexible’
• Stress ‘leading to staff skipping lunch’
• County Council implements absence management
• HSE: Workers should get involved in health and safety
• Health and safety ‘more pressing than environment’
• Calls to ban wearing of high heels
• ‘Stay cool’ for a healthy workforce